


a woodman kind of day

by dinottosaur



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, No Beta read we die like men, but walking into people's houses randomly won't help u sweetie, can u tell woodman's my fav, hilda is a ray of sunshine, johanna is confused, librarian's name is maven, woodman is probably a cryptid, woodman is trying to make friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 07:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16888533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinottosaur/pseuds/dinottosaur
Summary: woodman is friends with hilda (but repeating it makes him anxious).woodman is a chaotic neutral dude.woodman is confused and scared but he doesn't show it.





	a woodman kind of day

The Woodman walked along the floor of the forest. It was very early when he’d decided to go outside--the sun was only just beginning to rise. He wasn’t really sure why he went out so early; usually he only travelled this far at night, when he needed to gather firewood. But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

 

He didn’t know the way back to his house, either. Just the general direction, which was west of the wooded area. This meant he’d have to stay out until sundown. The thought was irrelevant, however, because he was never in a hurry to get anywhere. 

 

He had nowhere he  _ needed _ to be. 

 

Only places he liked to go to.

 

But, having nowhere to be sometimes meant he had very few friends to spend time with. Which was good, for the most part. He didn’t like being bothered by other people’s daily practices. And besides--having friends only meant disappointment when things didn’t end up well.

 

Despite all these reasons to  _ not _ have friends, he could admit...

 

...Sometimes it got a bit too quiet in his house.

 

_ What a selfish thought. You have a record player,  _ the Woodman thought, shaking his head.

 

Yes, he did have a record player. But it was tiresome to listen to the same tracks repeatedly. 

 

Come to think of it, the last person he was friends with was another woodperson. But she wasn’t really around anymore, so he dismissed the thought.

 

_ The blue-haired girl. What about Hilda? _

 

Hilda.

 

What a strange girl, living in the city. No matter where she went, danger always seemed to follow her. It’s no wonder those elves tried to smash up her house. She was always getting involved with giants, trolls, and other such creatures. 

 

He’d grown to respect her, with her determination. Her need for others to be happy. There was nothing strange about this mindset; It was the way she went about accomplishing these goals.

Hilda was the type of person who would fight multiple forest giants just to make one person happy. 

 

It took him a few years to finally admit he was friends with the blue-haired girl.

 

_ You should go find her. She seemed happy when you said you were friends. _

 

Yes, but Hilda is friends with everyone.

 

_ Go talk to her. You’re not a good friend if you don’t make an effort to maintain the friendship. _

 

Woodman groaned. Having friends was overrated, so  _ why  _ did he even bother? Hilda’s mum wasn’t particularly fond of him, anyways. Though it was probably because he always walked into the house without knocking.

  
  


-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

  
  


Soon enough, the woodman found himself at the door of Hilda’s apartment. He wasn’t sure what to do. If he invited himself in, Hilda’s mum would get mad again. If he knocked, both of them would be confused.

 

_ Knock on the door this time. It’s polite. Don’t invite yourself in. _

 

Woodman sighed brought his fist up to the door, and knocked three times. He waited a few moments before Hilda’s mum answered the door.

 

“Oh hey, Davi--Woodman?” Johanna glanced behind him, “What are you doing here?”

 

Woodman stared up at her and tilted his head to the side.  _ Think, you useless piece of wood. _

 

“Is Hilda home? I was hoping to talk to her.”

 

Johanna wore a confused look on her face.

 

“Um, yes, she’s in her room. Hilda!” She called for her daughter, walking away when the blue-haired girl and her deerfox reached the doorway.

 

“...Woodman? I didn’t expect to see you so soon!” Hilda said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, “Do you want to come in?”

 

“That would be nice.” Woodman replied.

 

He followed her into the house and sat down on the sofa. He wasn’t quite sure how to be a houseguest when most of the time, he just walked in and ignored the occupants of the home he’d entered.

  
  


Hilda sat down beside him, placing a stack of books on the coffee table. Twig sat on a cushion near her. “I know you like to read these, so I brought some old books from the library,” she said. “So what brings you to my home on this particular day?”

 

“Nothing really. But we’re apparently ‘friends’ now, so I thought I might as well stop by.”

 

Hilda tittered. “Friends. That’s quite an amusing word. I’ve known you since I was small. You repeatedly invited yourself into the house to bring wood for eleven years, you lay in front of the fireplace reading books all by yourself, you helped me befriend an old giant, and we just became ‘friends’ a few weeks ago.”

 

The woodman hummed in agreement. He picked up one of the many books Hilda had stacked on the table.  _ Cryptids: A Guide to Strange Creatures. _ How peculiar. He didn’t recall ever reading something so interesting.

 

“Where did you say you got this book?” He inquired. There was something odd about the piece of literature. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something strange.

 

He didn’t remember it, but he knew he’d seen this book before somewhere. 

 

“Oh, the cryptid book? I got that one from the librarian. It’s her personal book, so you should be careful with it. Maven doesn’t like it when I bring back ruined books.”

 

“Who exactly is Maven, again?” Woodman asked. 

 

“Maven is my mum’s girlfriend! And the librarian. I think she’s a witch or something like that,” Hilda said excitedly, “But don’t tell my mum that I said that first part.”

 

“Duly noted. Can we visit the library? I want to ask her about this title.” He said, leafing through the pages. Most of them were close to falling out. It seemed like a fairly old book.                                               

  
  
  


-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

  
  


The walk to the library was mostly filled with Hilda’s nonsensical chatter. Stories upon stories she told about her adventures in Trolberg, her friends, and the times she’d nearly gotten herself killed.

 

_ That last part is a bit concerning, _ He thought. 

 

But within this one-sided conversation, the blue-haired girl asked a particular question that turned it into a two-sided one.

 

“Woodman, have you ever loved anyone?”

 

_ This girl and her rude questions.  _

 

“No. I’ve lived for a very, very long time. Man-made concepts such as love can get tiresome during that amount of time,” He answered, “Although there was one other woodperson who I did have feelings for. But she’s gone now.”

 

“Oh,” was all Hilda said to the statement. Followed by another prying question.

 

“What was she like?”

 

The woodman took a breath. It’d been decades since he last attempted to remember.

 

“Hmm. She was nice, for the most part,” He started, “And she was very good at gardening. My home used to have lots of plants and seeds all around it. Some turned to trees. Some died. Some of the seeds never grew.”

 

Hilda slowed her walking, and Twig copied.

 

“She never trimmed the leaves in her hair, which was bothersome during the winter. The house would be littered with leaves that I had to clean up, but it was worth it. She liked to read books, and other sorts of literature. Mostly about agriculture,” He continued.

 

Then he felt a few flowers blossoming on his wooden head. He tried scratching them off.

 

_ It’s too late now. You’re remembering a loved one. _

 

He sighed and shook his head. Hilda noticed the small movement, and her eyes widened. Twig’s ears perked up.

 

“Oh my God, are you blushing?” She asked. “I’ve never seen you like that before! It’s so cool how they take the form of flowers!”

 

“No. I’m not.” He denied.

 

“Woodman, you don’t need to hide it. After all, you should be happy when talking about a significant other,” She said reassuringly, “My mum does it all the time.”

 

The woodman tilted his head. 

 

“I suppose you’re right,” He said.

 

The rest of the walk was quiet. It was a relatively comfortable absence of chatter. The two continued to stroll in the silence until they reached the library building. 

 

As usual, the woodman walked straight in without hesitation. Hilda trailed behind him.

 

“Do you want me to take you to Maven’s office? I don’t think the library’s doing checkouts at this hour,” she offered.

 

Woodman nodded in agreement, and followed Hilda to a small room behind the library desk. 

 

When they entered the room, the woodman took some time to observe his surroundings. There was a small music player on a matte black desktop, a cart filled with books to re-shelve, a pair of earbuds thrown haphazardly on the ground, a large cork board centered on the wall, with hundreds of sticky notes and miscellaneous papers. 

 

In the midst of the organized mess, stood Maven, wearing a cape with white webbed designs and spiders on it. Her hair was bi-colored, black and purple. She seemed to be organizing a stack of paperwork.

 

“Hey, Maven,” Hilda gave a small wave in her direction.

 

The librarian turned around, a bit surprised at first, but she smiled warmly when she saw her visitor was only Hilda. 

 

“Hello, Hilda. Come to check out another book?” She paused and looked over the blue-haired girl’s shoulder. “I see you brought another guest.”

 

“Oh, him? Yes, this is Woodman.” Hilda gestured towards her friend, “He wanted to ask you something about--”

 

Maven cut her off, and bent down to speak with the woodman. She scanned him up and down suspiciously, before she narrowed her eyes and grinned.

 

“Are you a cryptid? You probably came here to ask about the book about cryptids, correct?”

 

The woodman tilted his head.  _ Another observant human. How unsettling. _

 

“I came here to ask about cryptids, but I’m not sure if I am one myself.”

 

The librarian hummed in response, rummaging through a pile of books in her work bag, before dusting off and handing a different title to Woodman.

He read the cover.  _ Forest Cryptids and Other Such Creatures.  _ The woodman flipped to the page that Maven had bookmarked.  _ Tree Creatures. _ On the bottom of that page, was an illustration of a tree trunk with a beaming face. It was only slightly resemblant of the woodman, but it was very close. He read the text.

 

_ Ah, nothing I haven’t already seen before. _

 

The woodman peered up, and was met by Maven’s gaze.

 

“How many centuries are you able to live?” She asked.

 

Woodman hesitated for a split second before deciding to tell her.

 

“Lots of people think I’m immortal. I don’t think that’s true, based on the fact that I can and will feel pain due to time passing, but nothing about me ever physically changes. My kind can live a very long while, but there is a time in our lives when we die eventually,” He replied.

 

The librarian hummed once more, haphazardly taking notes on a small memo pad that looked as if it were falling apart.

 

“That’s all the information I will needed. Do you need anything else?”

 

Hilda, who had curiously been watching the two interact for quite some time, chided, “I don’t think so. Woodman wanted to ask you a question, but you asked him another question which also answered his.”

 

Hilda turned around, and walked towards the door, hand resting on the doorknob.

 

“We’ll be heading back home, now. Thanks for letting us stop by!”

 

“Tell Johanna I said hello,” Maven smiled, “I’ll be visiting soon.”

 

The blue-haired girl nodded, and led Woodman back outside as they walked back to Hilda’s home.

  
  


-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

  
  


When they got back to the house, Woodman noticed that Hilda wasn’t talking as much as usual. It was slightly off-putting.

 

“Are you thinking about something? You’re never quiet for this long,” Woodman broke the silence.

 

Hilda looked up. “Oh! No, I was just thinking about how this is the first time you’ve visited to just talk to me. I’m not that used to it.”

 

The woodman stirred his tea. This was something he knew fairly well about Hilda; Most of the things she said were fully honest, and she spoke her mind when it came to things like this. She cared about others more than what the average person would bother with. That’s how they ended up being friends. She talked to him until he started talking to her as well. 

 

That’s how they’d always been.

 

He looked up at Hilda, after a moment or two. 

 

“That’s alright. I’m not that used to visiting you like this either. I know we’ve talked before, casually, to say the least. But it’s still very new to me,” He said.

 

The blue-haired girl smiled. 

 

Woodman had gone from saying  _ good deeds are overrated, _ to visiting her, a friend, and meeting another aquaintance while doing so.

 

The woodman really was something strange.

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! this is a test fic for writing the characters in hilda. i hope i did okay lol. woodman is a really great character and i've seen chapter 11 like a million times.
> 
> so!!! follow me on tumblr if u like this!!
> 
> my main blog is @dinottosaur on tumblr, so follow that if you wanna see my art and interests.
> 
> my side blog, @dailywoodman, is where i just post pictures of woodman every day.


End file.
